Blimey. I was expecting about three responses, and there seem to have been more (I have read all of them, and would really like to know what the deleted ones said too 😷)
Just to recapitulate:
I am wearing a mask when I go into public indoor spaces
I am not whining. I am saying I hate wearing them. In fact, I passionately hate them. That's a fact. It's not a whinge.
I am not a conspiracy theorist per se, though I do think that introducing masks with no real explanation and no idea of how long it might be for has the potential to pave the way for the government to introduce other things in the same way.
I am not asking people to look into their crystal balls and predict when we will be able to stop wearing them.
I would, however, like the government to clarify why we are having to do this, and what would have to be different for the mandatory mask-wearing to be dropped.
I was opposed to lockdown, too, but we were at least told that it would be lifted once the various conditions had been met. These conditions were set out. You could argue with the conditions themselves, but they gave us an indication of how long that particular Hell would last.
I think we should be given the same information about masks.
I live in a part of the country where not one single person has died either of or with Covid since April. Lockdown was adhered to by something like 97% of people in this area. Yet we still have to wear masks. I would like someone to explain why this is the case, and when we will be allowed not to wear them again. When nobody has died of or with Covid for six months? A year? I will grudgingly stick to the rules, if they can be sensibly justified.
I suspect, in fact, that there will be no clear direction, and people will just sort of slither out of wearing masks in the same way that they have slithered out of lockdown. This being the case, it would be better to have clear scientific reasons for wearing them, and an idea of when we might be able to stop.
I agree with PP who have now given up the idea of having a pleasant mooch round museums, galleries and shops. It's now thoroughly unpleasant, and this is not going to help the economy.
I also think the government has introduced them as a knee-jerk reaction. They convinced an astonishing number of people that the world is a desperately unsafe place, and that they will die if they step out of their houses. Now they are evidently regretting the fact that so many people actually believed them, and are trying to convince people that they will be "safe" if everyone is wearing masks.